Directors

Will Holland, Chief Executive Officer

Will has considerable upstream experience from various positions held in the international oil and gas industry over 30 years, notably in corporate, operational, financial and M&A roles. Will began his career as an engineer with Halliburton, a leading global oil field services company, where he spent much of his time focused on North Sea and West Africa operations. He went on to lead teams at Macquarie Bank Limited, where he invested equity and pre-production structured debt into small and mid-cap upstream E&P companies across Europe and Africa. Since leaving Macquarie he has held executive and advisory roles at a number of private and publicly listed small cap E&Ps where his focus has been building businesses and driving shareholder value through asset acquisitions and de-risking projects. Will holds a B.Eng (Mech) from Warwick University and a MBA from Edinburgh Business School (Heriot-Watt University).

Alastair Stuart, COO, Executive Director

Alastair Stuart has over 30 years of experience in operational, commercial and technical roles in the energy and IT sectors. He has been a consultant working with Europa since 2012. As a 1982 graduate of Herriot Watt’s Masters programme in Petroleum Engineering, he began his career with Total CFP in Paris before joining Enterprise Oil in 1986, shortly after it was established, where he focussed on projects in the North Sea and the Far East. He was later promoted to New Ventures Manager, where he led the evaluation and progression of new ventures in South America, Eastern Europe and the Far East. After ten years with Enterprise, he worked briefly with Hardy Oil & Gas, before setting up his own consulting group in 1998 which developed processes and systems for managing capital allocation across large portfolios of investments in the oil & gas, pharmaceutical and venture capital sectors.

Brian O’Cathain, Independent Non-executive Chairman

Brian has worked as a geologist and petroleum engineer in the oil and gas sector since 1984. He began his career with Shell International, and worked at Enterprise Oil and Tullow Oil in senior roles. He served as CEO of Afren plc to 2007, and as CEO of Petroceltic International plc, until 2016. He is a Non-executive Director of Eland Oil and Gas, an AIM listed company producing over 20,000bopd in Nigeria, and of Nephin Energy, a private gas producing company which is the largest equity holder in the Corrib Gas Field in Ireland. His skills include market understanding, fundraising, and the technical, legal and financial aspects of running a publicly-listed oil and gas company. He led and negotiated the agreed nil-premium merger of Petroceltic and Melrose Resources in 2012. He holds a BSc (First Class) in Geology from the University of Bristol. Brian keeps his knowledge and awareness current by participation in industry conferences, IOD workshops, and by networking with other directors and executives in the international oil and gas industry.

Simon Ashby-Rudd, Senior Independent Director

Simon has extensive experience in the upstream energy sector with over 30 years in energy investment banking roles at both large institutions including Dresden Kleinwort Benson, Citigroup and more recently Standard Bank, and specialist boutique energy advisory firms such as Tristone Capital and Waterous & Co. During his career, Simon gained significant global experience and built an extensive network across the industry advising energy companies on corporate strategy and capital structuring, first in Europe then in the Far East and then in North America before finally focusing on Africa for the final ten years. Today Simon provides independent advice to growth orientated energy companies either directly as a NED or as an independent consultant. Simon is a graduate of University College London holding a B.Sc in economics.

Dr Eleanor Rowley, Independent Non-executive Director

Eleanor is highly experienced in the upstream energy sector having worked as a geoscientist in both exploration and development projects. She is a proven hydrocarbon finder who has been responsible for multiple impactful discoveries in India, Cyprus and MENA and has been responsible for evaluating exploration and appraisal opportunities across multiple jurisdictions including sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently Managing Director at Capricorn Energy (Egypt) which averaged gross production of 75 kboepd in 2023 and prior to that she held senior executive positions with supermajors as well as mid-size and small E&P companies in multiple geographies, including a period as Vice President Exploration (MENA & Caspian Southern Europe) at TotalEnergies where she was responsible for the region’s exploration and appraisal projects, new business development strategy, exploration operations and technical excellence. Eleanor holds a BA in Earth Science from Oxford University and a PhD in Geophysics from Cambridge University.